Welcome back to wake up with Cheddar. I'm Shannon
and I'm thanks for joining us. You might recognize
her from shows like Laguna Beach or the Hills.
But she's now using her reality TV platform as a
marketing tool for business. Kristen Cavallari is a founder
, Ceo New York Times best selling author that's taking
pride and ownership in her business. I caught up
with Kristen in Times Square to talk about her business
ventures and to get the inside scoop on her brand
new cookbook. Here's a look at our walk and
talk first. I want to thank you for meeting
us in the heart of Times Square. Happy to
be here. This is fun. Uh I want
to talk to you about your lifestyle brand, uncommon
James. You have 1/4 store coming. Congratulations.
Thank you. Tell me about the company. And
what's next? Yeah. Well, next is our
Charleston location, which like you said, is our
fourth location. Very excited about that. I love
the city. Um And then, you know,
from there, I think we're going to continue to
open more stores at one point in time. I
said I wanted to have like three, four and
call it a day. I have since changed my
tune on that. Now, I think I want
a lot of stores. So that's kind of the
next big thing. And then May 12, we're
launching Uncommon Beauty and we're adding a lot of products
to our skin care line. So, very excited
about that. Exciting. What is so interesting about
you is you have zero investors, you get all
your yourself, you don't hear that often. What
made you do that? You know, I saw
an interview actually another jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher before I
launched on Common James. And her piece of advice
was if you can find it yourself, do it
. And that just stuck with me for whatever reason
, I think to me, me being 100% owner
means I have complete creative freedom to do whatever I
want. It's freedom in all areas of the company
, which for me having that creative freedom, it
has been such a dream come true. So,
you know, it makes me nervous to bring on
investors because I feel like I'll lose a little bit
of that. So many people from our generation know
and love you from the hills and Laguna Beach.
But how did you branch out and get so successful
on your own? Really taking a different route?
Well, thank you. I mean, it took
me a few years, you know, but I
think honestly the success of Uncommon James, I would
love to say that it really was on my own
. But it was because of very Cavallari. I
went back to reality TV, strictly as a marketing
tool to promote the company and it really catapulted us
to the next level overnight and really thankful for that
show and that I was able to go back to
reality TV. But, you know, I've always
said, had it not been for my original fan
base from those shows. I don't know if I
would have a company. I mean, maybe I
would, but it would have taken me probably a
lot longer to build it. So I'm very thankful
that everything has sort of lined up in my life
to make uncommon James as successful as it is.
What advice do you have for young people that are
looking at you and just are so inspired by your
, I mean, I would say, listen,
if I can do it, anybody can, you
know, I didn't even go to college and not
that I'm promoting, not going to college, but
I think certain things can't be taught. And if
you have drive and passion and ambition, like those
things, you're unstoppable. And so if you have
a dream and you have a goal and you have
that fire inside of you, then go for it
. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do
it. You're a very humble person, but I'm
gonna list this off. You're a CEO the founder
, a mother, also a New York Times,
best selling author. And you just dropped a cookbook
. I did. So, um, gosh,
I mean, really, it's just been this cookbook
, you know, truly simple just came out and
it's quick and easy meals. It's a cookbook that
really represents where I'm currently at in my life.
And so I don't know, we'll see. I
have my back to the Beach podcast on right now
and then from there, I'm just kind of letting
life unfold and I'm just going to see whatever happens
next. I don't know. I'm enjoying my work
life balance right now. It's a little more life
, which has been kind of nice. And so
just enjoying being at all my kids sporting events to
be completely honest.